Music Trade Review

Issue: 1931 Vol. 90 N. 11

Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW,
November, 1931
27
SOME KIMBALL ADVERTISEMENTS OFFERED TO DEALERS
74 years
of CRAFTSMANSHIP
HE dealer sales helps and special
propaganda for the Kimball line of
pianos prepared and issued by the W.
XV. Kimball Co., of Chicago, has aroused
much interest and the material is being
widely used by dealers throughout the
country.
Included in the dealers' helps is a series
of newspaper advertisements in various sizes
T
designed for use by the dealer in his local
newspaper, matrices of the advertisement
being furnished to dealers without charge.
The most recent series of advertisements
known as Folio F has just been released by
the advertising manager, David W. Kimball,
and contains some highly interesting an-
nouncements, set off with unusual illustra-
tions as will be seen from the reproductions.
QRS-DeVRY CORP.
VOTES TO INCREASE CAPITAL
that certain something that makes a music
roll a real producer. Some say it's rhythm,
but that can't be all, else a drum solo would
be popular. Others say it is melody, yet
some of the world's loveliest ballads lack the
snap required for a popular music roll.
"But whatever it is, Clark Orchestra Rolls
have it, as is attested by the fact that electric
pianos everywhere play them month in and
month out and earn their owners substantial
incomes."
At a stockholders' meeting of the QRS-
DeVry Corp., held at the Chicago plant on
October 19, the stockholders voted for an
increase of the capital stock, elected a new-
board of directors, who later elected officers,
and decided on a number of important
business policies, including the segregation
of the Movie Camera and some other divi-
sions into operating companies, control of
which is to be held by the QRS-DeVry
Corp., as a holding corporation.
E. A. Kieselhorst and J. R. Caldwell, of
the old board, were re-elected directors, and
two of the new members are Sheldon
Clark, the well-known oil operator, and
Col. Roberts, a retired capitalist.
J. B.
Kleckner becomes president, and W. W.
Kieselhorst is secretary. The latter is also
assistant sales manager of the Movie
Camera Division. In talking to a repre-
sentative of T H E REVIEW, he said they had
extensive merchandising plans under dis-
cussion for all their divisions.
CLARK ORCHESTRA ROLL CO.
FINISH ANOTHER CONTEST
The latest contest conducted by the Clark
Orchestra Roll Co., of DeKalb, 111., which
they called the "Nation's Capitol" contest, is
now closed, Christianson Bros, of Racine,
Wis., winning with a score of six out of
ten.
Incidentally, these and similar contests did
much to stimulate sales of Clark rolls. In
discussing, in their announcement, the ele-
ments of popularity of a music roll, the com-
pany says: "It's hard to put one's finger on
TRADE COMMITTEE FOR
AID OF THE UNEMPLOYED
The Illinois Governor's Commission to
raise about $8,000,000 for the relief of the
Chicago unemployed during the coming
winter is now r engaged in soliciting con-
tributions from the local industries.
Vice-
President Walter P. Roche, of Lyon & Mealy,
has been appointed general chairman of this
division, and he has in turn asked the fol-
lowing gentlemen to assist in this work. All
of them are now devoting much time and
thought to securing contributions. The sub-
chairmen include Roy J. Cook, retail man-
ager of The Cable Company; David W.
Kimball, assistant treasurer, W. W. Kim-
ball Co.; H. D. Hewett, of M. Schulz Co.;
L. C. Wagner, of Baldwin Piano Co; Arthur
Bissell, of Bissell-Weisert Co; W. G.
Percival, of Wurlitzer Co; H. K. Kuhr-
meyer, of Kay Manufacturing Co; Paul H.
Monnig, Tonk Brothers Co.; Edgar A.
Nelson, Bush
Conservatory
of
Music;
Charles Mason, Chicago Talking Machine
Co;
Arthur Craft, Columbia School of
Music; J. C. Stevens, Cosmopolitan School
of Music; L. M. Halsted, American Con-
sevvntorv of Music.
MANY PIANO MERCHANTS
SECOND-HAND DEALERS
Secretary R. A. Burke, of the Story &
Clark Piano Company, returned to the
Chicago headquarters on the 20th after a
three weeks' sales trip, which was particu-
larly effective in the way of orders.
As he explained to T H E REVIEW, "Aside
from the number of orders I got, it was paT-
ticularly gratifying to find that every dealer
I visited, without exception, was greatly en-
couraged over the outlook for piano sales.
It was a changed attitude from that of
even a few months ago. But every dealer
seemed to think that what the public de-
manded was bargains; hence, the dealer
wanted to buy at bargain prices, and I did
find that a number of dealers had evolved
a system of making money by buying and
reselling second-hand pianos, to which ac-
tivity they gave most of their attention."
THE REVIEW'S
WANT DIRECTORY
WILL RENT space in our music
store for a sheet music department—
only one other such department in city
of 300,000. Excellent opportunity. Ad-
dress Box 3427, Music Trade Review,
420 Lexington Avenue, New York.
POSITION WANTED—Wholesale Representa-
tive, by man of 35. Can produce. Willing to
accept compensation based on results. Employed
now but have excellent reasons for changing.
Address Box 3430. Music Trade Review, 420
Lexington Ave., New York.
POSITION WANTED—Tuner and repair man
of nine years' experience on all kinds of pianos
and coin-operated instruments, also public ad-
dress systems; can do case work; some selling
ability. Married, reliable, and sober. Also have
small car. Address Box 3429, Music Trade Re-
view, 420 Lexington Avenue, New York,
POSITION WANTED—Tuner, who can do
minor repairs for outside work in Yonkers, N. Y.
Steady work; state lowest salary, etc. Address
liox 3428, Music Trade Review, 420 Lexington
Avenue, New York.
POSITION WANTED—Piano tuner, fully ex-
perienced. Age 42. Tuning, repairing, case re-
pairing and finishing. Pianist. Available now
anywhere. Single. Address Box 3426, Music
Trade Review. 420 Lexington Avenue, New York.
Music Trade Review -- © mbsi.org, arcade-museum.com -- digitized with support from namm.org
PIANO FACTORY and
PIANO SERVICING
DR. W M . BRAID WHITE
Technical Editor
PIANO TECHNICIANS
A Pertinent Discussion
Regarding Their Future
DR. WM. BRAID WHITE
N
O matter what' may come to the in-
dustry during the next few years, no
one can deny that pianofortes will re-
main in practical use until some superior
substitute shall have been found, which at
the moment is not at all likely. Even if the
output of new instruments should shrink to
pitifully small quantities, the millions of them
now in existence will remain more or less
in use. So long as the performance of music
shall remain a matter of importance to our
civilization, a certain number of pianofortes
will be more or less constantly in use. Even
if one, only one, pianoforte in ten should
be steadily used throughout the country dur-
ing the next few years, the rjumber thus
giving forth sound will not be less than a
million, and so quite large enough to give
steady employment to two thousand first-
class tuners. This is all indeed rather a
depressing calculation, but I am taking the
most utterly pessimistic point of view that
I can assume. At the very worst there
would have to be a continuing if even a
diminishing craft or occupation devoted to
the art of tuning, regulating and repairing
the pianoforte.
I say again that I am deliberately here
taking the worst possible aspect of the situa-
tion, and minimizing "every favorable fea-
ture. The picture I have drawn is indeed
not merely unfavorable but probably highly
misleading. Yet I leave it, because it indi-
cates the important fact that so long as there
is any art of practical musical performance,
there will be a genuine practical necessity for
pianofortes; and therefore a parallel need
for first-class technical men.
During the past couple of years we have
seen the irresistible working of economic
28
laws which pay no attention to either our
hopes or our desires, but continue to march
down their own road, sweeping out of the
path all who would attempt to put obstacles
in their way. Above all we have seen the
weak and the unfit pushed aside, leaving
behind them only the strong and the skilled.
If the effects of these impersonal laws upon
the technological interests of the pianoforte
have been unfortunate, if men by the thou-
sands have left occupations which had sup-
ported them during years of activity, to en-
gage in occupations altogether different, this
has at least partly been due to the painful
but inescapable fact that pianoforte technol-
ogy has always been, in the main, slipshod
and unsystematic, scorning exactness, sneer-
ing at precision and preferring shop tradi-
tion to the principles and methods that gov-
ern the more exact mechanical trades. It
was always easier to say that precision was
unattainable or valueless than to go through
the hard discipline of applying it. So we
have had very little pianoforte technology
worthy of the name, even in the factories.
Outside them, an even soTrier spectacle has
been presented. An ignorant public has been
exploited by an equally ignorant or care-
less trade; with the result that in the year
1931 it is necessary to say that of those who
play the pianoforte, even professionally, not
one in every ten has any but the vaguest
and most inaccurate notions about its tun-
ing, or as to the difference between in- and
out-of tuneness.
Yet the fact remains that there is still a
very great practical need for a trained body
of pianoforte technicians.
What is the state of affairs in regard to
those men who have, then, survived as piano-
forte technicians and who are still engaged
in carrying on their art? It is my delib-
erate opinion that their standards are being
steadily degraded and that pride of work-
manship, pride in skill and the desire to do
the best possible artistic work is slowly but
surely dying among them. It is all very
sad; but such, in my opinion, are undoubt-
edly the facts.
here is quite simple, not to say obvious.
Since there must be a supply of technical
men for tuning and repairing, and not less
for the work of design and construction in
the factories, we must not be content to let
things slide along as they now are sliding,
in the hope that somehow and in some way
we shall be able to find new technicians
after all the old ones are dead. I say that
we cannot do anything of the kind with any
safety. One of the worst features of the
present situation is the slow but steady dis-
integration of the existing technical foTce.
Once that force is thoroughly scattered
there will be virtually no possibility of re-
assembling it. This, of course, is obvious
enough in the case of the factories. It is
equally obvious in regard to the tuners.
Even today it is becoming difficult to find
really first-class artists capable of tuning
and of regulating pianofortes in first-class
style. Most of the men who aTe still avail-
able are elderly if not old. They will not
live on this earth forever. When they have
all passed out of the picture, how shall we
get our instruments tuned, regulated and
repaired? Obviously we shall have to de-
pend upon casual efforts by men who will
carry on the craft as what is called a "side
line," but who in the nature of the case wil!
be utterly incapable of carrying on the best
traditions or of measuring up to high stand-
ards. The prospect is not pleasing. Evi-
DRYING UP
Now the point that I should like to make
THE
MUSIC
TRADE
Estate
/v\ANUFACTORER
OF
BUCKSKIN.
1049—3rd St.
NORTH BERGEN, N. J.
Tel.: 7—4367
REVIEW,
N o v e m b e r , 1931

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